Keeping the fridge Happy!

Now this is going to be one of those hubs about something most of us don’t think about everyday, but need to do at least once a month for sure. I am talking about the fridge, cleaning it, defrosting the freezer, and in general maintenance.

Where to start

First off you need to spend sometime every week checking on the leftovers saved up in the plastic containers. You know the ones that have eyes looking out at you when by accident you open one up just to see what is in it. My favorite is the one with the moldie dim sum creature that somehow got a hold of the .45 grandpa keeps under the bed, and always wants some of the sour cream for a payoff.

Hey, so I forgot to check this month, Ok. Anyway most of the time you just have to throw them away and buy some more plastic containers. This is not that big a deal, right? The thermostat should be set a the medium setting for the most efficient operation of the fridge. I personally like to keep it around 5 if the scale is 0-9 this way the cold water dispenser isn’t running all the time using the power that could be used up by the hair dryer in the bathroom, hey it’s about saving money right?

The Freezer

Keeping a bag of ice from the grocery store in the freezer helps to keep it cold and cuts down on the ice cube tray drama. Yes it takes up a little bit of room, but at least this way you always have ice. Here in Phoenix during the summer ice is like gold, 110 in the shade you want ice in your water! This leads us into freezer defrosting, hey this is my favorite part! Should be done at least once a month, no exceptions. Why? because at least one frozen something is going to get the dreaded freezer burn. This is yucky, and even the Arm & hammer doesn’t help with the smell bleeding over into all the frozen stuff. Defrost the freezer, it will make the fridge work better, the food turn over is better, and best of all the ice doesn’t taste like the fish pond down at the park.

Crisper boxes and door shelves

The crisper boxes need to be cleaned out at least every time you buy veggies, lunch meat, butter, and stuff that comes raw from the produce section. Most of us don’t buy organic produce from the hippie store so that means the dirt has chemicals and insecticide residue in it, and on the fruits and veggies. Clean the crisper’s, you feel better, and the kids just might eat more veggies knowing their clean and fresh.

Things you don’t think about

Most of us use the top of the fridge for all that stuff that doesn’t make it into the junk drawer. This means some of it falls down behind the fridge and is never seen again, until spot loses his favorite toy under the front of it and starts pawing and barking, that makes you wonder, “what the heck? “ Out comes the fridge and bingo, tons of dirt, fuzz, food bits, cereal, things you can’t even identify are under there. Now is the time to pull out the fridge and give it the old spic and span treatment. Hey I do this, yup at least once a month whether it needs it or not! Cuts down on bacteria, and stuff that might be bad crawling around under there.

Did you know?

Something most of us don’t even know, your refrigerator has a overflow pan underneath. This is a drain for the condensation that builds up inside the box, plus doubles for the overflow for the cold water dispenser. You need to check it every so often, just pull off the grill at the bottom of the crisper, it will be right there. Pull it out and dump it in the sink, bing-bang-boom! No more unexplained water on the floor, muddy footprints when it didn’t rain. Yea you thought it was the dog, huh? Doggy treat time’‘)

Hey we all take for granted the job the fridge does for us day in and day out, it doesn’t complain, never tells on you when you sneak that last piece of cake, always keeps the beer cold no matter what. Right? Well do it a favor and keep it healthy, you will save a ton of money and maybe just maybe you will never learn the name of the sales guy down at the appliance store.

Money saving tips

I wanted to say a few words about all those plastic containers you keep under the sink, up in the cabinets above the fridge, pantry. These are the greatest thing since the toaster, they keep the dry stuff dry, the sweet stuff sweet, and the cereal fresh, but they don’t last for ever! The lids get lost, the ones that are not microwavable get nuked anyway and they end up melted. The Mr. used the big 5qt one the last time he changed the oil in the minivan, Damn it!

It’s convenient to have plastic containers, and they really don’t cost that much. The grocery store has a whole isle for them, right? Well what if I told you they were way cheaper online, and you could even get the sets that you always wanted to match the color of the counter tops. With just about every size you can think of and you can even get the plastic containers that are BPA free, so the kids don’t end up drinking the chemicals used to make them.

Think about replacing them every once in awhile too, it will go along way towards saving money. Here’s an idea, use the ones that are melted for the kids colored pencils,crayons, markers, leggo’s. Shoot just about anything you can think of works. Plus it makes it easier for them to clean up the “mess” so you don’t have to.(very often anyway) I’m pretty sure the Mr. could find a few thousand uses for a couple of them in the garage, the back of the minivan, the trunk of moms car could use a few don’t you think? I’m just saying....